Wireless communication systems providing mobile telephone service and other services have come into general use worldwide. The Internet and other data services have popularized the idea of wireless packet switched networks where instead of using a dedicated connection between the source and destination to move information, like a conventional cellular voice connection uses, a wireless packet switched network moves chunks or “packets” of information, via a network of switches, to and from mobile stations.
As with the cellular telephone networks, overall system integrity and security is an important aspect of a packet switch network. As required by the FCC (Federal Communication Commission), each mobile station in service in the wireless packet switched network contains an electronic serial number (ESN). The ESN is a 32-bit binary number that uniquely identifies a mobile station and is not supposed to be altered. When the wireless packet switched network receives certain communications from a mobile station, its ESN is validated (i.e., matched with the number registered with the network) before the mobile station is allowed access to user services.
Conventionally, whenever the mobile station attempts to communicate with the network with some control packets, the ESN is examined by the network to validate the mobile station for use on the network and, if the ESN cannot be validated, the network sends a deactivation communication over the air interface to the mobile station. The mobile station includes an application that is cooperable with a deactivation communication to temporarily render the mobile station unable to send packets containing user data over the air interface, essentially deactivating the mobile station from user services on the network. This type of deactivation communication from the network base station is known in the industry as a “DIE” packet.
Although the DIE functionality restricts user data packets, it does not restrict administrative type packets that provide network-level status information and control capabilities, for example. Some administrative type packets from the mobile station will trigger the ESN validation processing. The following list includes some scenarios in which status and/or control type packets are used by a conventional mobile station:
mobile station powers On and sends an ACTIVE packet;
mobile station powers On and sends a BORN packet; and
mobile station roams to a “better” base station and sends a ROAM packet.
An ACTIVE packet is generally known in the industry as a packet sent to activate network registration, a BORN packet is sent to activate network registration for the first time, and a ROAM packet is known in the industry as a packet informing the network that the mobile station has moved to another base station in the network.
In other words, even though a mobile station has been deactivated from sending user data packets needed for accessing network services, it can still create system traffic across the network from continued transmission of administrative packets (such as ACTIVE, BORN, and ROAM packets). For example, when roaming, the mobile station stays in contact through the conventional roaming capabilities of the wireless packet switched network. The mobile station monitors the radio signal strength from nearby base stations and determines if and when a transfer of communication control to another base station is necessary. When the mobile station determines that a roam is necessary, it sends a ROAM packet to the wireless packet switched network, which in turn attempts to validate the mobile station via an ESN check for every ROAM packet received. A mobile station can roam several hundred times per day causing thousands of system level signals. Thus, it should be apparent that even those mobile stations which are deactivated from network user services can cause a great deal of system traffic.
There are many reasons for having deactivated and/or unregistered mobile stations operating in the network. For example, many new cars are provided with mobile stations, which enable services such as geographic position service (GPS). These mobile stations are typically embedded in the vehicle such that they are unavailable to end user meddling and typically are hard-wired to receive power from the vehicle battery. They are immediately operational for transmitting. Before the mobile station can be activated to receive GPS services, the user must subscribe to the service. Until then, the mobile station is considered “unregistered”. Although unregistered for receiving GPS services, the mobile stations are still operational for transmitting system level administrative traffic. Further, a user's mobile station may be remotely deactivated from current network services by a network operator because the user quit paying the required subscription fees, for example. Again, even though the mobile station has been deactivated from receiving network services, the mobile station can still transmit system level administrative traffic that triggers ESN validation.
The problem is exacerbated when large numbers of deactivated and/or unregistered mobile stations are roaming in the network creating superfluous system traffic, which reduces the available communication bandwidth for registered mobile stations. The vehicle-embedded mobile station is particularly problematic because it is unavailable to the end user and has a near limitless power source (e.g., car battery). In other words, one cannot count on the end user disconnecting and/or reactivating the mobile station, or count on the power source eventually dying.
One approach has been developed to remotely disable handheld mobile stations from transmitting any signals, however, this approach also requires a manual reset to re-activate transmission operations. Manual reset is not a problem for handheld mobile stations. However, this is not a practical approach for mobile stations that are not readily available to the end user. Therefore, a need exists for a method and system for reducing unwanted system traffic caused from deactivated and/or unregistered mobile stations while enabling an automatic type approach for restoring mobile station transmission operations.